“I was so nauseous the whole day,” says Katie Mitchell ’13,
recalling her day as a CIA analyst.

It all was hypothetical—but very realistic. Mitchell, Emily
Pehrsson ’13, Dallen McNerney ’14, and Connor Smith ’14 represented William
& Mary at a CIA Crisis Simulation Competition in November. These students
were presented with information concerning the hypothetical situation of
growing unrest on the Korean Peninsula following unverified reports on the
death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

The William & Mary team was assembled by Visiting Assistant
Professor of Government Dennis Smith, co-director of the College’s Project on
International Peace and Security (PIPS). At the competition,
held at Georgetown University, William & Mary came in second out of 12
teams overall, placing first among the Virginia schools.

The first
Crisis Simulation Competition was held in February
2011 at William & Mary. Smith notes that each scenario is set up to approximate the
pressure-cooker atmosphere that is everyday life in the CIA during an
international crisis. Each team is tasked with analyzing the reliability and
validity of various documents related to the unfolding situation. Their
assignment is to sort out the information and prepare a written synopsis—and an
oral brief—outlining a course of action for the United States.

The William & Mary team chose
Mitchell to brief a CIA analyst acting as the director of the CIA. She was
responsible for distilling into a ten-minute talk the conclusions her team had
made after working in a small conference room for several hours. The William
& Mary students began their deliberations with a stack of documents, any of
which could challenge or support their argument.

“We would split up the readings that were given to us, and we
would each read half of them so we could fill in gaps, in case people missed
something,” says Mitchell. The team’s strategy also included classifying the
information they received based on elements of the information that included
location and target of threat. Each of the teams had a
seasoned CIA official in the room with them as they discussed and received
information.

“I think as college students, we tend to get bogged down in
details. Having been an analyst herself, she is able to say, ‘It doesn’t matter
what these details are,’” says Mitchell of the mentor assigned to William &
Mary. “She was obviously brilliant and she knew just how to change our pattern
of thinking.”

The various teams initially competed against only the other schools
in their home state. After oral briefings, winners were selected to represent
Maryland, D.C. and Virginia in the final rounds, in which Washington College,
American University and William & Mary competed. The finalists received
additional information from the other schools of their state had concluded
before entering the last round.

Mitchell says her oral presentation was the most stressful part of
her semester. “They basically gave each team a different question to answer.
You would go into the final round answering the question that you had been
prepared to answer, and then it would switch to something entirely different,”
Mitchell recalls.

She explains that, the “director” would stop her in the middle of
her brief, and she’d have to mentally begin again and have to convince him of
what she thought was taking place, and her recommendation of how to respond. “I
don’t even think I got my first sentence out and the guy interrupted me,” she
says of her oral briefings.

Mitchell and Pehrsson are veterans of the simulation, having also
participated in the first competition. The Project
for International Peace and Security (PIPS) is a rigorous
and highly selective undergraduate International Relations think tank here at
the College. The CIA Simulation Competition is the extension of a pilot program
suggested last year by the PIPS program.